On 1 November Mercury KX release the world premiere recording of Luke Howard’s 2022 ballet Interlinked, which was choreographed by Juliano Nunes for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Howard’s score is performed by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and conducted by Paul Murphy.
Interlinked is cast in five parts, with its orchestral textures creating from undulating string and woodwind figuration, by turns gentle and energetic, which build with increasing intensity towards moments of powerful emotional release in richly-scored, cinematic climaxes. Listen to a preview of the second movement, ‘Reflection’, here, and its fifth part ‘Growth’ here.
Alongside Howard’s ballet music, the record also features the reflective solo piano work Conception – written for World Sleep Day – and Solidarity, featuring Faber Alt harpist and composer Lara Somogyi and vocal ensemble Shards.
The score for Interlinked was commissioned for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s triple bill On Your Marks, celebrating the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth games in 2022. The piece for 16 dancers is an exploration of the values of the Commonwealth, taking as its starting point ideas of inspiration, tolerance, and respect, as well as engaging in an exploration and critique of the gender norms of ballet choreography through both movement and designs by Tom Visser. Both movement and music describe how the energy that we exude bounces from one person to the next, in a never-ending circle.
The ballet played to thousands of festivalgoers on Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage in June 2024, performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet. Watch an excerpt from Interlinked here. It is Howard’s third collaboration with Nunes, who has previously choreographed pieces for the Atlanta Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet (2022’s Alignment), and the Royal Ballet (‘Bear Story II’ from his album Open Heart Story in 2019). In 2023 Interlinked toured to the United States for performances in Orlando and New York City.